TSR NuTSR Declares Bankruptcy

NuTSR, owned by Justin LaNasa, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which will liquidate the company's assets.

NuTSR's gross revenue so far for 2023 is $621.93 according to the documents filed in North Carolina. This is balanced against total liabilities of just over $384,000.

The company made the news over the last couple of years, emerging in 2020 when then-owners Justin LaNasa and Stephen Dinehart registered the defunct TSR trademarks and launched the new venture with the involvement of Ernie Gygax, one of D&D co-creator Gary Gygax's sons. Over the following months, NuTSR generated controversy after controversy, attempted to sue D&D publishers Wizards of the Coast via a crowdfunding effort, and in March 2022 eventually found itself on the receiving end of a lawsuit from them.

TSR - The Full & Glorious History of NuTSR

Because the Saga of TSR3 has been ongoing for a while, with many landmarks, I thought I'd do a quick timeline for those who haven't had the time (or, frankly, inclination) to keep up with the whole palaver. As multiple entities refer to themselves as TSR, I will use the nomenclature (1), (2)...

www.enworld.org

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As a consequence of the bankruptcy petition the current lawsuit between WotC and NuTSR is on hold, postponed until March 2024. NuTSR's website is still active.

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[Wincenworks]

I'm pretty sure Ernie is solidly on the side of Ernie, and will talk lots of bigoted nonsense when he's surrounded by bigots or feels supported by them, and back off when he feels that its in his best interests not to be seen as a bigot. His convictions are decided entirely by his (very limited understanding of his) best interests in the moment.

He'd be equally fine with Nazis or "radical leftists" operating the shop, just as long as he gets to run his games and nobody makes him feel bad when he speaks out of turn.

 

[Deset Gled]

Regarding Ernie, one thing to consider is that he has not been making any posts or reference to Lanasa or NuTSR on social media or anywhere public for a long time now. But even though he doesn't talk about it, he still spends a lot of time at the Museum. When you see him post on Facebook about private gaming gigs or people visiting his "Dragonlands" estate, those people often also get a tour of the DHSM. Ernie will not mention is publicly, but those people do sometimes. Here's a photo from someone who got the Dragonlands and DHSM private tour from him last weekend:

We know that Ernie's relationship with Lanasa has cost him many personal friendships and an incalculable amount of respect. But the lesson he has learned from all this is not "Don't be a bigot". Rather, he learned the importance of keeping quiet about the bigotry.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

We know that Ernie's relationship with Lanasa has cost him many personal friendships and an incalculable amount of respect. But the lesson he has learned from all this is not "Don't be a bigot". Rather, he learned the importance of keeping quiet about the bigotry.

I think about how he chose LaNasa over his own brother. A person rarely knows what family dynamics are like on the inside, but that LaNasa said such horrid things about Luke Gygax (and ostensibly planned to cause him harm), and that wasn't an immediate end to their association, I fear says a lot about Ernie as well.

 

[Shakeshift]

I think about how he chose LaNasa over his own brother. A person rarely knows what family dynamics are like on the inside, but that LaNasa said such horrid things about Luke Gygax (and ostensibly planned to cause him harm), and that wasn't an immediate end to their association, I fear says a lot about Ernie as well.

I'll try to be less acidic about this than last time I posted on here about this in 2021.

Ernie is arguably the most tone-deaf person I can imagine in gaming. Ernie has this dream he wants, to be the princely heir to his father's legacy in Dungeons and Dragons, and he'll do whatever it takes to realize it.

Anything... except apparently WORK honestly towards the goal. That would be the sole province of Ernie's brother, Luke.

 

[Faolyn]

Ernie is arguably the most tone-deaf person I can imagine in gaming. Ernie has this dream he wants, to be the princely heir to his father's legacy in Dungeons and Dragons, and he'll do whatever it takes to realize it.

Anything... except apparently WORK honestly towards the goal. That would be the sole province of Ernie's brother, Luke.

Yeah, this bothers me a lot. My Dad is a pretty well-known writer (in certain admittedly large circles). I have never expected people to think that I was something special just because he has his name on things--not when I was a dumb kid, and certainly not as an adult.

 

[Sacrosanct]

. Ernie has this dream he wants, to be the princely heir to his father's legacy in Dungeons and Dragons, and he'll do whatever it takes to realize it.

Anything... except apparently WORK honestly towards the goal. That would be the sole province of Ernie's brother, Luke.

Yeah, that's my impression as well. For Ernie, it doesn't matter if Justin or an anarchist PRIDE group owned that house, he'd still be there wanting to show if off to people because the house and the history is the only important thing to him. He's willing to associate with people, regardless of what they might say or do, as long as he gets access. And he's willing to tell whoever has the keys whatever they want to hear to get it.

Every single account from people who knew/know Ernie all say the same thing. With that many people with first-hand knowledge, I have to give it credibility. He never espoused bigoted beliefs about the LGBTQ community ever, and in fact bent over backwards to help that community. Then he met Justin. And as far as I can tell, was willing to compromise his integrity and go down that path just to keep having access to his Dad's old house. Cuz that's all that matters. The game and the name.

 

[Faolyn]

Yeah, that's my impression as well. For Ernie, it doesn't matter if Justin or an anarchist PRIDE group owned that house, he'd still be there wanting to show if off to people because the house and the history is the only important thing to him. He's willing to associate with people, regardless of what they might say or do, as long as he gets access. And he's willing to tell whoever has the keys whatever they want to hear to get it.

Every single account from people who knew/know Ernie all say the same thing. With that many people with first-hand knowledge, I have to give it credibility. He never espoused bigoted beliefs about the LGBTQ community ever, and in fact bent over backwards to help that community. Then he met Justin. And as far as I can tell, was willing to compromise his integrity and go down that path just to keep having access to his Dad's old house. Cuz that's all that matters. The game and the name.

Reminds me of that old Chicken Boo short in Animaniacs. "He's robbed a bank and saved a puppy on the same day. He's the man with no personality."

 

[Ancalagon]

The best OSR Facebook group uses a rainbow version of that logo. So there's definitely a variety of folks in the OSR community, plenty of them without retro attitudes to go with their retro gaming.

after this small incident, the OSR logo turned rainbow on that discord server too...

 

[Dyson Logos]

He never espoused bigoted beliefs about the LGBTQ community ever, and in fact bent over backwards to help that community. Then he met Justin.

Let's not forget that Justin isn't the first hard-right homophobic transphobic business partner he's hitched his ride to. The reason his Kickstarter was so late is that his partner in it was too busy being an edgelord to actually work on it until another company took it over.

Ernie is happy to defend his edgelord "friends" over his brother.

 

[Wincenworks]

I suspect that is, in no small part, due to envy of his brother's situation.

Luke is retiring with a service pension, he gets to be the face of Gary Con, he gets official WotC gigs - Melf is in the Idle Champions game, Tenser is not, etc. Ernie is the older sibling, and the one with Gary's name, but Luke is the one who has logistics skills, experience negotiating and can be trusted not to fly off the handle when in the spotlight.

A noteworthy factor here is also that in the build up to all this, Ernie was genuinely convinced he and Duck would have shares in the venture - but the court documents and the bankruptcy filing show no such interests. Ernie has never learned how to business deals, even to make sure he doesn't get screwed over, he just goes along and waits to be rewarded.